The front door to Bitcoin, and your first steps down the rabbit hole.
An independent guide for newcomers and seasoned Bitcoiners alike, whether your first sats are still ahead or you have held for years. The truth about learning and buying: free to use, forever, and always improving in public.
The name is a call to action, not a sales counter. We sell nothing: we explain, compare and list, and you decide. Why the name →
$100 is about — sats at today’s price
Where to go
Before you start
Do you sell bitcoin?
No. We don't sell bitcoin or anything else, and we never hold your money. You learn and compare here, then buy wherever you choose. Why the name →
Who's behind this, and why?
One person, Marius, who has held the domain since October 2017, has been planning the site since 2023 and building it since 2026, so anyone can learn about Bitcoin without being sold to. The story →
How is it paid for?
Marius pays the costs, and donations are welcome. Some Orange Pages listings carry a marked affiliate link that can earn a commission; the swap comparison earns nothing. No ads, no investors, no paid placement. How we stay free →
Start here
- What Bitcoin is10 min
- Why it matters11 min
- How to buy it8 min
- Storing it safely7 min
- Using it9 min
Term of the day · Wallet: software or hardware that manages your private keys — the bitcoin lives on the blockchain; the wallet just proves it's yours.Term of the day · Private key: a secret 256-bit number that controls your bitcoin; anyone who knows it can move the funds, so it must stay secret.Term of the day · Public key: a key derived from your private key that can be shared openly — addresses come from it, but it can't be reversed.Term of the day · Address: a shareable string others send bitcoin to — like an email address for payments; safe to post.Term of the day · Seed phrase: 12 or 24 words (BIP 39) that back up your whole wallet — store it offline; anyone with it can restore your funds.Term of the day · Self-custody: holding your own bitcoin where only you control the keys — no exchange or government can freeze or seize it.Term of the day · Cold storage: keeping private keys entirely offline — the most secure way to hold bitcoin long-term.Term of the day · Sats: the smallest unit — 1 BTC = 100,000,000 sats. The unit that survives a six-figure price.Term of the day · Block: a bundle of transactions added to the blockchain roughly every 10 minutes.Term of the day · Blockchain: a distributed, append-only ledger of every transaction — anyone can verify it, no one can quietly rewrite it.Term of the day · Mining: using computational energy to add blocks and earn new bitcoin — the process that secures the network.Term of the day · Proof of Work: the rule Bitcoin uses to agree on history — miners spend real energy, making attacks costly but verification trivial.Term of the day · Halving: every 210,000 blocks (~4 years) the block reward is cut in half — enforcing the 21-million cap.Term of the day · Confirmation: a block mined on top of your transaction — six (~1 hour) is the classic 'practically irreversible' threshold.Term of the day · Fee: a small sat/vByte payment to miners to include your transaction; higher fee, faster confirmation.Term of the day · Mempool: each node's waiting area for valid-but-unconfirmed transactions; miners pick from it, usually highest-fee first.Term of the day · UTXO: Unspent Transaction Output — Bitcoin tracks discrete unspent chunks, not balances; these are what you spend.Term of the day · Node: a computer running Bitcoin that validates every rule itself — more nodes means a more decentralized network.Term of the day · Hash rate: the total computing power securing the network — higher means more expensive to attack.Term of the day · Lightning Network: a Layer 2 on top of Bitcoin for near-instant, low-fee payments that settle back to the main chain. All 112 terms →
At a glance
- BTC / USD
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- $100 → sats
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- BTC this year
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- 1 oz gold → BTC
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- Block height
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- Fast fee
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- Halving in
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- 21M mined
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From the workshop
- InfraSearch finds The Orange Pages FAQ
- ContentThe FAQs say only what's true, and read the same everywhere
- EducationSafer first steps, and reading times that agree everywhere